


Heart's Strife

by orsumfenix



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Aspects, Gen, Quests
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-27 12:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7618306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orsumfenix/pseuds/orsumfenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone has stolen Dave Strider's Time. His brother Dirk is determined to get it back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heart's Strife

**Author's Note:**

> as someone who's used to writing in the present tense, there might be errors in here where i slip from past and into present.  
> also: this my first time writing these characters, so i'm hoping i do them justice

John Egbert was dead.

Sort of.

Not really.

At least, that’s what everyone was saying – that John Egbert was dead. His sister went to wake him up in the morning, only to find John lying motionless. Without a pulse, without a heartbeat, and without a breath.

In other, shorter words: dead.

Jane Crocker, John Egbert’s older sister with a mysteriously different surname, didn’t attend school for two days. Understandable. Her brother was dead, after all. That _had_ to be hard.

As someone with their own younger brother that could, hypothetically, drop dead at any second, Dirk Strider found himself sympathising with Jane. And frowning about the fact that he was actually feeling _sympathy_ for a girl he’d only ever spoken to once, in order to ask for an extra sheet of paper. And then seeing Dave and feeling sympathy for her all over again, because John Egbert was dead.

When Jane Crocker strolled into school with her head high, three days since her brother had died, everyone stared with shock. Three days, and she’d already seemed to recover. She didn’t break down crying _once_ , surpassing Dirk’s admittedly low expectations.

Jane must’ve been a lot tougher than he thought.

\--

Halfway through the school day, Jane Crocker was given an apology by a sympathetic teacher. She stared at him for several seconds, and shook her head.

“It’s fine,” she stated, much to the shock of everyone. “John’s not dead, anyway.”

No one decided to respond to that – she must be in shock, after all. She’d lost her younger brother for apparently no reason, and that was bound to mess anyone up. The whole school seemed to unanimously decide that Jane Crocker was in denial, and that no one should try to argue against her.

Except for Dirk Strider.

See, it went like this: Dirk _would’ve_ just written her off as being in denial and put her out of his mind, but it turned out that that was what everyone else was doing. And Dirk didn’t like being like everyone else. He was his _own_ person, thank you very much, and if everyone else was going to assume that this poor girl was off the rails then he’d very pointedly _not_ assume that.

Which was why, in the final lesson it turned out they shared, he approached her and said, “How did your brother die?”

Jane stared for a couple seconds, seemingly in shock, before blinking several times and responding.

“Not one for pleasantries, then?” she asked, folding her arms. She only came up to Dirk’s shoulders, but she had a way of standing that made her seem _tall_ , somehow, like she was only pretending to be short to make you feel better about yourself. “It’s Dirk, right?”

“Yeah. And you’re Jane.”

“I think everyone knows who I am.”

“Yeah.” Dirk looked at everyone looking at _them_ , then stared back at Jane. Her eyes were a very bright blue, like bright bulbs against a dark expanse. “So, how did he die?”

“That’s easy, Mr Strider,” Jane replied without missing a beat, tone teasing. “He didn’t.”

Dirk looked into those bright, shining eyes, realised how dim everyone else’s eyes seemed in contrast to hers, and thought _I believe you._

Instead of saying it, he just raised an eyebrow.

“That’s interesting,” Dirk intoned. “Considering everyone’s been saying that he died. Is everyone wrong?”

“Of course! Reports of his death have been greatly exaggerated.” Jane readjusted her stance, slightly, and Dirk got the impression that she was the type of person who liked to fidget and was choosing not to in order to seem firmer. He wasn’t quite sure if it was working or not. “Someone’s stolen his Breath.”

At which point Dirk’s brain paused, short-circuited, and made him turn around and leave the classroom. If he’d turned around, he would’ve seen Jane blink bemusedly at him.

\--

As soon as the bell went, Dirk re-appeared in lesson, walked right up to Jane, and breathed out harshly.

“I need you to come to my house,” he said, hating how raw his voice sounded. Jane stared at him for a few seconds, face oddly unreadable in a way hers almost never was, and then she nodded sharply.

“I didn’t have anything on tonight, anyway,” she proclaimed with a kind of false cheer, dredging up an awkward smile. “Is it close enough to walk? I don’t fancy being stuffed in a carriage for long, they hurt my back.”

Dirk allowed his lips to quirk, watching as Jane swung her back onto her shoulders.

“Same here. Don’t worry, the apartment’s not far. It’s up a bunch of stairs, though.”

“Wonderful,” Jane huffed, smiling despite it. “Shall we be off, then?”

\--

Leading Jane through the overturned cars and winding streets, Dirk felt oddly self-conscious for the first time in years. He never normally thought about the odd position of the apartment; while not far from school, he had to step over wide cracks in the pavement and climb over a couple abandoned vans to get there.

He helped Jane over a few of them, tempted to grin and frown at the same time. Dirk was well aware of his tendency to make expressions that were amalgamated, and that they could come out somewhat…disturbing. He kept his face blank. No reason to scare her.

“Here we are,” Dirk remarked after what had only been seventeen minutes, but felt like a lot longer. “Kind of a mess, I know.”

With trepidation, Jane stared at the crumbling apartment building. Dirk had to admit, it didn’t exactly look _stable_. He didn’t blame her for being nervous.

“It’s, um. That is to, ah, say, that…” Jane seemed to be at a loss for words. Dirk waited patiently. “I think it looks – nice.”

“You don’t have to lie,” Dirk commented dryly. Jane shot him a _look_ that was halfway between stern and mischievous, and Dirk figured that Jane Crocker was probably the only one in the world that could pull it off.

“I was shocked, that’s all. But I’m telling the truth. It’s nice.”

Dirk raised his brows but he couldn’t be bothered arguing, so instead he just lead the way inside through the gaping hole where a door should be and up the first couple stairs. Jane followed slowly, eyes darting about to take it all in.

“Does anyone else live here?” she asked after they’d climbed at two flights, panting from exertion but pressing determinedly on. “I’ve seen loads of apartments, but not a _single_ person!”

“Nah, it’s just me and Dave.” He shot a glance backwards, taking in the firm way she held herself, and decided she could take it. “He’s John’s age. Think they met once.”

“…Oh.” Jane was silent for several seconds except for her heavy breathing, filling the space between them with a heaviness that only a survivor could manage. “Is he up there now?”

Dirk focused dead ahead, not daring to turn round.

“Oh, yeah,” he informed, bitter grin tugging at his lips. “He’s up there.”

\--

“Oh my gosh.” And then, “What – happened, to him?”

Dirk leaned against the doorway, which, much like the one at the entrance to the building, held no door.

“Someone stole his Time,” he disclosed simply, throat clogging up even as he did so. “Dunno who.”

Jane breathed shakily, walking around Dave and analysing every inch of him, almost like a detective. Dirk could see her eyes settling on the defensive posture, the sword held firmly in his grip, his panicked expression.

Whoever stole his Time knew what they were doing, and Dave was trying to fight them off before they could.

Dave failed.

Jane turned to face Dirk, biting her lips hard enough to draw blood. Trying to keep tears away, probably. Wouldn’t be a surprise.

“Were you asleep?” she queried, and Dirk found himself oddly relieved with her question. She could’ve very easily asked the dreaded _are you alright_ , and if she had then Dirk probably wouldn’t have been able to lie about it.

He shook his head.

“At school. Never liked leaving him alone here, but I figured it’d be fine, you know – we’re the only ones here and we’re at the top of the whole building. _Plus_ ,” he emphasised, kicking a leg over to the other side. “Not long till he’s fourteen. Then he should be coming to school, too.”

Jane nodded, gnawing at her lip so hard Dirk wondered if she wasn’t hurting herself. Then again: perhaps that was the point.

“We thought we were safe, as well,” she said after a moment of silence, squinting her eyes as she looked towards the window. “Our house is in the middle of what I _think_ used to be suburbia.” Jane snorted, a bitter sound that managed to be genuinely amused at the same time. “Tons of trolls live around us. So we always thought – who’d go after us, you know, when there’s trolls?”

Jane shifted, sticking her hands in her pockets. Dirk watched in silence. When she said nothing further, he sighed.

“So, do you wanna team up or not?”

Jane’s head snapped towards him, the startled look on her face evident.

“Huh?”

“Someone stole John’s Breath. What I’m guessing is the same someone stole Dave’s Time.” He shrugged, a jerky motion, and one that betrayed how unused he was to having people in the apartment, the place that was supposed to be his and Dave’s and theirs alone. “Aren’t you pissed?”

“Aren’t _you_?” Jane’s voice was entirely too shrewd. Dirk didn’t meet her eyes.

“Just ‘cos I’m not throwing a hissy fit it doesn’t mean I’m not mad as all _fuck_.” He slammed a hand back against the wall to prove his point. It wasn’t enough to break it – which was a much more common occurrence than one might think – but it’d certainly leave a mark. “I have a vague idea of where to start.”

“You do?”

“’Course. I wouldn’t ask for your help if I didn’t.” Dirk looked up at the ceiling, where the plaster was peeling and cracking and entirely not hygienic to be around. “Dave’s not totally helpless. I found most of a horn on the floor. _Troll_ horn.”

Jane bit her lip again, shifting her weight from foot to foot. It looked like chewing on her lip was probably a habit.

“That doesn’t tell us much, though,” she pointed out, which – okay, yeah, she was sort of right about that. “The Blank Empire’s _full_ of trolls. I think there’s more trolls than humans!”

“Well, yeah,” Dirk conceded. “But how many trolls have you heard of with super curly horns?”

Jane fell comically silent for a moment. Dirk watched with patience as she gathered herself.

“But they’re just a myth,” she insisted at a slow pace, eyes betraying the way her mind was ticking and tocking and rearranging its views. “I don’t even believe in the Brothers of Blood, but – the Sisters of Time? Come _on_ , Dirk. _No one_ believes in them.”

Instead of saying anything, Dirk wandered over to the closest draw, pulled it open and removed something, something curled and hard and yellowish and _real_.

He held it up silently. Jane let out a startled gasp, and then schooled her features into a determined acceptance.

“Okay. So how do we start?”

\--

“So what’s your Aspect, then?” Jane asked once they’d left the apartments. She’d been hesitant to leave Dave there – “ _What if they come **back**?” _ – and not afraid to voice it, but Dirk had managed to convince her that carrying him along would do more harm than good.

He hesitated, staring at the road ahead for a few moments, before replying.

“Heart,” Dirk answered, trying not to feel _too_ embarrassed at the look Jane was probably about to send him. “Yeah, I know, I’m not exactly the type, right?” At least, _he_ didn’t think so. The only others with Heart were the Leijons at school, and both of them seemed to fit the role _much_ better than Dirk did.

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Jane retorted instead of agreeing, adjusting her backpack. They’d replaced the contents before going, putting in food and water and weapons, and Dirk had no doubt that it was probably a lot heavier than what she was used to. “I don’t really judge people based on their Aspect. I mean, I have Life.”

That took a moment to sink in before Dirk turned and _stared_.

“Life,” he repeated, the words buzzing on his lips. He found himself whistling. “You’ve hit the jackpot, Crocker. Isn’t it only meant to be for nobility, though?”

“ _Now_ who’s being judgemental?” she huffed, folding her arms stubbornly. Dirk felt the corners of his lips curl.

“Me. Sorry.” They walked for a moment before he continued, “Isn’t it, though?”

The look Jane shot him was halfway between amused and annoyed, and her footsteps fell a little harder.

“I didn’t choose Life the same way you didn’t choose Heart.” Her eyes focused on the skyline ahead of them, and she didn’t say anything else.

They walked.

\--

They set up the tent in an overgrown forest, dark and unkempt. The trees were spiralled, clearly ancient, like something out of a fairy-tale. Jane looked around with an odd sort of admiration, helping Dirk pull the sleeping supplies out of his bag.

“I had no idea this place was here,” she divulged cheerily, unwrapping a rolled-up blanket. “I would have visited.”

Dirk scanned their surroundings, lips tugging downwards.

“It’s dangerous,” he commented. Jane tilted her head.

“It’s _charming_ ,” she disputed. Dirk was too tired to argue, simply pulling his pillow out of the rucksack and waiting for Jane to crawl inside the tent before following. She continued while adjusting her makeshift bed. “Like from a novel, or something, where an evil ogre lurks, waiting to attack.”

Dirk, lying on his blanket, stared up at the tent’s ceiling.

“Great.” He rolled over, removing his shades. “Well, if an evil ogre _does_ attack, I’ve got my katana, so it’s not gonna be attacking for long.”

Jane let out a strange laugh that vaguely resembled an owl’s cry. It was kind of endearing.

“Good night, Dirk!” she called from her position, giving the impression of being a lot further away than she was. “Don’t let the bedbugs bite!”

Dirk allowed himself a snort.

Bedbugs had _nothing_ on him.

\--

It took Dirk a moment to realise that he wasn’t waking up of his own accord, and that there was a person shouting rather loudly just outside the tent, and that him and Jane could both be in a very large amount of danger.

He was up in seconds, sword firmly in hand. Jane was still sleeping, he noted briefly. How she could sleep through _that_ racket, he had no idea.

Another fact about Jane Crocker’s sleeping habits: she drooled.

The words being shouted made themselves clearer, forming somewhat coherent sentences. The person yelling them sounded pretty panicked, but it could always be a trap. Dirk’s grip on the sword tightened.

“You _motherfucking_ thing if you don’t come here _this instant_ – aw, c’mon, don’t make me run over there, I’m _wearing slippers -_ ”

With a dramatic flourish that Dirk always denied he had, he pulled back the entrance to the tent, revealing a human girl about his age with blonde hair bright enough to make him wince. Her choice of clothing was… _odd_ , an entirely pink outfit consisting of a nightie, a loose dressing-gown and, of course, dirty tyrian slippers.

Dirk turned his head to see what she was shouting at, but a rustle of movement, a flash of green, and it was gone.

The girl – who shall henceforth be referred to as Pink Girl – threw her arms up in the air, stumbling back slightly.

“ _Un_ believable! I take such good care of that creature and whaddoes it do? It ditches me!” She shook her head, hair bobbing. Dirk watched with bemusement. “Lousy useless cat.”

This was _hilarious_. She hadn’t even _noticed_ him. Or the tent, it seemed, some _how_.

Feeling sort of obligated, Dirk cleared his throat. Pink Girl turned, caught sight of him, and crinkled her eyes up.

“Who’re _you_?” She looked around, taking in the tent. “And why’re you sleeping out in the fucking _woods_? That _can’t_ be comfortable.”

Pink Girl was right.

“It’s not,” Dirk conceded, sword still held defensively in front of him. “And I’m – Hal.” Internally, he cursed his lying skills. To say he wasn’t _great_ at it would be…an understatement.

Pink Girl snorted immediately, looking him up and down.

“Yeah, _B.S_. It ain’t _Hal_. It’s like – Brody or Hunter or,” she waved an arm, “Eagle, or some shit.”

Dirk raised a brow.

“Eagle?” he echoed, though he doubted he’d misheard. Pink Girl just nodded furiously.

“Yeah. Don’t look at me like that, it’s – cool. It’s an awesome name. I’d _happily_ call myself Eagle.” Then she paused, and sighed. “Aw, _damn_ , I could totes have convinced you that was my name. I shouldn’t’ve said it.”

“Okay.”

Dirk couldn’t figure out if Pink Girl was an anti-climax or not. He was half expecting an ogre, thanks to Jane’s earlier comment, and instead got a funny girl who seemed to be chasing after a cat, for some reason. In the deep, dark woods. That stretched out for miles.

He frowned, realising he wasn’t wearing his shades. Pink Girl was watching him expectantly.

“ _So_ ,” she said loudly after a minute, raising her eyebrows. “Aren’tcha gonna ask me _my_ name?”

Dirk shrugged lightly. His arms were getting tired from holding the sword, but he still didn’t feel safe enough to lower it.

“Alright. What’s your name?”

“It’s,” Pink Girl declared dramatically, waiting to make sure he was paying attention before carrying on. “Ro-Lal.”

“Sounds like a troll name.”

‘Ro-Lal’ snorted.

“Do I look like a troll to _you_ , Mr Hal, if indeed that _is_ your real name?” She cocked her head, and it hit Dirk once again that she was wearing pyjamas in the middle of the _fucking woods_. “My bet’s on _not_.”

“Okay, so,” Dirk began, shifting the grip on his sword. “Care to explain why you’re in the middle of these creepy-ass woods wearing _those_ clothes?”

Ro-Lal frowned, peering down at herself.

“Whas wrong with ‘em? You, Mr Hal, need to learn some _manners_.” Then she straightened up. “Also, I kinda live here? This is _my_ home territory you’re invading, buddy.”

Somehow, Dirk managed to quell his instinctive response of “don’t ‘buddy’ _me._ ”

“Why do you live in the woods?” he asked instead, wishing he had his shades and could get away with darting his eyes about. “Especially _these_ woods. Don’t you worry about being attacked by an ogre?”

Ro-Lal snorted again, which was apparently something she liked to do.

“Hal, even if there _was_ an ogre, it should be worried about _me_ attacking _it_.” She shrugged. “Plus – I live here because it’s super safe here! No one ever comes trekking out _normally_ , and me and Rosie have this fuckoff-massive house thing that’s just us and a buncha cats. It’s great!”

Dirk opened his mouth to ask who this mysterious ‘Rosie’ was, but Jane chose that moment to _finally_ wake up, step out of the tent and say, “Dirk?”

Dirk didn’t turn around, instead watching Ro-Lal’s delighted reaction.

“Oh em gee,” she stated simply, eyes lighting up. Behind him, Jane cleared her throat.

“Um, who is this?”

“Your name’s _Dirk?_ ” Ro-Lal crowed, and if eyes could beam then she’d have the happiest eyes on Earth. “That’s _sooo_ perfect! I mean, a’ight, it’s not _quite_ as good as Eagle, but _still_. I am totes in adoration of your sick name, bruh!”

“Um, hi?” Jane sounded seconds away from laughing, stepping forwards with an easy amusement in her face. “I’m Jane. What’s your name?”

“Ro-Lal. I’m Ro-Lal. And you’re Jane. And he’s _Dirk_.” Ro-Lal threw her head back, probably about to have an aneurism from glee. “This is _perf_. Rosie will -” At which point she cut herself off. Her grin didn’t fade, but it became – less real, somehow. As though she was forcing herself to keep going now that she’d started.

Slowly, Ro-Lal lowered her head back down.

“Would anyone care to explain what’s going on here?” Jane asked, though it was really more of a demand. She didn’t seem angry, though. Just…confused.

“I woke up because she was shouting at her cat,” Dirk divulged, finally lowering his sword. The gesture was supposed to relax him, but if anything he just felt more nervous. “Turns out she lives here. Dunno _why_.”

“I told you why.”

Dirk raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

“You gave me a barely comprehensible jumble about attacking ogres.”

“ _Whaaa_ - _?_ Excuse you, mister, but I gave a _perfectly_ logical explanation -”

“Do you have a house?” Jane interrupted. Which, in hindsight, Dirk should’ve asked as soon as he _met_ Ro-Lal.

Ro-Lal herself nodded firmly.

“Yup! Why, you wanna stay there?”

“Um, if possible? I guess it depends how far it is. I’m not too sure I want to be stumbling about in the dark.”

Ro-Lal waved an unconcerned hand, shifting her weight.

“The forest is _always_ dark. Hate to break it ya, buuut in the mornin’ this place ain’t getting any lighter.” Ro-Lal let out a short laugh, looking around them to squint at their tent. “You gonna be bringin’ that? ‘Cos I swear, it’s _completely_ safe where it is.”

“Um,” Dirk said, while at the same time Jane commented, “Sorry, Ro-Lal, but I’d feel better bringing it along with me.”

“Fair enough, I _guess_.” Ro-Lal sighed with the heaviness of someone carrying the weight of the world. “’Kay. I’ll wait here while you do that, I guess?”

“Oh, no,” Jane ordered, smiling in a slightly terrifying way. “You can help.”

\--

Ro-Lal’s “fuckoff-massive house thing” turned out to be exactly that – indescribable, except for in those words. Dirk, now with his shades firmly in place, tried not to look too impressed. Jane, however, seemed perfectly fine with admiring it.

“It’s, um, big?” she tried. Ro-Lal nodded eagerly.

“Ya-huh! Me an’ Rosie found it when I we were dead small – I mean, she was just a baby so technically _I_ found it. It’s so great, though. There’s food and cats and _science equipment_.” With those last two words, Ro-Lal’s entire face seemed to shine the way her eyes did. Her hair was still obnoxiously bright. Dirk wondered if Ro-Lal was so bright he’d have to look away. “I’ve always wanted to share it with someone who didn’t already _know_ the place, y’know?”

Dirk _didn’t_ know. While Ro-Lal seemed thrilled and exuberant to be showing off her home, all he’d felt at showing Jane _his_ was a weird kind of repressed embarrassment. He hoped Jane wasn’t mentally comparing the places.

“Well, I think it’s lovely,” Jane remarked, before shooting Dirk a _look_. “Don’t you, Dirk?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. It’s great.”

Ro-Lal, taking no note of his awkwardness, beamed.

“Okay, the two of you can stay in _these_ rooms.” She gestured to them with a flourish. “And there’s quilts and stuff already made, so like, you don’t hafta worry about getting all your shit back out. And they’re adjacent to each other, so if you wanna speak in the night, or sommat…” Ro-Lal shrugged, suddenly looking tired. “Go ahead. My room’s just down the hall.”

“Thank you, Ro-Lal,” Jane addressed sincerely, and Ro-Lal’s smile turned somewhat rueful.

“Y’all can thank me in the mornin’. Just, um – don’t go two corridors down, alright?” Her expression turned pensive. “And I know about negative suggestion an’ all that, and you might think I’m daring you to go in, but I’m actually, seriously, asking you not to.”

Jane and Dirk exchanged looks, but both nodded.

“We won’t go in,” Dirk said for the both of them. “We promise.”

\--

If they had been in a movie, or a novel, perhaps they would’ve gone in.

But this wasn’t a movie, or a novel, and Ro-Lal had offered up her home and given them only one request, and so they obeyed.

Neither Dirk nor Jane went two corridors down, no matter the temptation.

\--

In the morning, Ro-Lal made them both coffee.

It wasn’t…the _best_ coffee in the world, too sweet with too much milk and too much sugar. But she handed it to them with a beaming smile, and suddenly it didn’t seem _so_ bad.

They were all sitting in the kitchen, crowded around a small wooden table that looked to have been self-made, trying to ignore the rot on the walls peeling the plaster. About fifty cats were crowded in there with them, climbing on top of the counters and making it impossible to walk straight. Ro-Lal seemed right at home.

“They’ve got a bit of a breeding problem,” she said by explanation, stroking a cat under its chin absently. “By which I mean: they can’t stop. I don’t mind, though! I love cats. Or, well – I love _most_ cats.”

Dirk and Jane both nodded.

Ro-Lal tilted her head, considering them.

“Hey,” she started, squinting her eyes. “What were you two doin’ out there in the big bad forest, anyway? No offence, but…I dunno. You just don’t seem the type for it.”

Dirk cleared his throat awkwardly, pushing his shades back on his face.

“We’re on a…” He paused, searching for the right word. Unfortunately, the only one that came to mind was, “Quest.”

There was a moment of silence in which Jane looked about to die of embarrassment and Ro-Lal seemed about to combust from glee. Dirk kept his face straight. He’d said it, and now he had to stick with it.

“It’s not as stupid as it sounds,” Jane cut in before Ro-Lal could say anything, shooting Dirk a dirty look. “It’s, just, well…I guess _complicated_ is the best word for it.”

“You don’t say,” Dirk muttered. Jane shushed him.

Ro-Lal waved a hand, looking entirely too satisfied with life.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna think you’re sponges or whatever for wanting to go questing about. But, like – what are you even tryna accomplish here? ‘Cos you both look like you’ve had it _made_ up ‘till now.”

“It’s, um, kind of a personal thing,” Jane informed, just as Dirk stated, “Our siblings’ Aspects got stolen.”

Ro-Lal paused, blinked and make an odd sound from her throat. Jane rolled her eyes.

“Way to go, Dirk. Spreading all our secrets.” She didn’t sound _too_ mad, and when Dirk shrugged she just quirked her mouth. “Hey, Ro-Lal? Are you alright?”

Slowly, Ro-Lal’s mouth shut from where it’d been hanging open.

“I think,” she began, enunciating every word carefully. “I should probably show you what’s in that corridor.”

\--

What was in the corridor, it turned out, was the bedroom of a young girl named Rose Lalonde.

She looked to be about Dave’s age, hair just as pale as his but eyes shining much too brightly to be natural. The main difference, of course, was the greyness of Rose’s skin, almost like a troll’s; except, of course, for the fact that Rose Lalonde was _not_ a troll.

Upon seeing them, she let out a weird mess of noises jumbling together. Ro-Lal bit her lip, eyes shining with tears.

“That stupid cat ran off into the forest,” she muttered, scuffing her shoe against the floor. “So I chased it. By the time I got back…they’d taken it. They’d fuckin’ stole Rosie’s Light!”

The story was horrifically similar to Dirk’s own. He searched for things to say, mind coming up at a blank, but it was Jane who reached over and rested her hand on Ro-Lal’s arm.

“I’m sure it wasn’t your fault,” Jane assured in a smooth voice, dredging up an awkward smile. “You couldn’t have known. _None_ of us could. And we’ll catch the ones that did it and get their Aspects back.”

Ro-Lal sniffed, rubbing a hand across her face.

“I know. It can’t be _that_ hard, right? I mean, Rosie’s alright until I can get her Light back. Light’s not a bad one to lose, and I’ve been lookin’ after her, but…I just can’t shake the feelin’ that it’s a lot _bigger_ than this. Like – this whole stealing Aspects thing’s just a part of something bigger.”

Dirk understood. After all, he’d been getting that feeling himself.

“You can come with us,” he said without thinking, and – oddly enough – didn’t regret it. “We could always use the extra help.”

Ro-Lal sniffed again, shooting him a weird look.

“Uh, do you guys even know where you’re goin’?”

It was a fair question, but Dirk still felt a flash of ‘of _course_ I know what I’m doing’ that it wasn’t all that easy to quench.

Jane explained for the both of them.

“The Pale Mansion,” she informed, her unease soaking through the words. “Dirk’s brother managed to get a horn off one of the trolls that attacked him, and, well – it looked like it might belong to a Sister of Time. So we figured the Pale Mansion was probably the best place to find them. Beyond that…we don’t really have a plan.”

“We were just sort of gonna wing it,” Dirk intoned, leaning back on his sword. Ro-Lal blinked owlishly.

“Well, I can probs help with that. I’m not all that shitty at plans.” Then she stretched, shooting Rose a sad look. “Plus I’m _super_ good with my blaster-rifle. Did I show you guys my blaster-rifle?” At their headshakes, Ro-Lal grinned. “Okay, I’m totally about to show you my blaster-rifle.”

She shut the door on Rose, looking pained despite the grin on her face.

“Oh, and, by the way?” Ro-Lal called as she turned, sending a glance back at them. “My name’s Roxy.”

\--

Roxy Lalonde seamlessly fit into the group in a way that made Dirk wonder if she wasn’t supposed to have been there from the beginning. Sure, she was loud and, yeah, she slept sprawled all over an already-small tent, but she’d brought food and company and god _damn_ did she know how to use a blaster-rifle.

When they had to slosh through a gorge, Roxy was the only one who seemed to be enjoying herself. Upon their arrival at an old abandoned temple, she rushed ahead and started investigating _everything_.

And whenever Dirk or Jane remembered that they’d left their siblings back in the town, alone and without means of safety, she sat with them and _talked_.

All in all: Roxy Lalonde was an even greater addition to the group than Dirk could’ve hoped for.

“There it is!” she gasped after a couple days of travelling, shaking Jane’s arm from where she was clutching it tightly. “The wall! Oh my gosh, it’s _huge_!”

 _Huge_ was a pretty good way to put it. The White Wall, clean and curved and white, was enormous even from a distance, towering above them. The sky behind was dark and grey, ominous in its presence. Dirk tried extremely hard not to gulp.

In front of the wall, almost as huge, stood the Pale Mansion.

“We’re almost there,” Jane said, stating the obvious. Dirk shot her a _look_ , even though it was probably lost through his shades. “Do we have a plan yet?”

A moment of silence.

Roxy waved a hand loosely, grinning.

“We’ll come up with somethin’. Like, it _looks_ close, buuut we’ve actually still got a few days to go before we can reach it.”

She was right, of course. The Pale Mansion was only visible because of both its size and the lack of ruins surrounding it, making this the cleanest area of the Blank Empire. It occurred to Dirk that this could probably be classed as ‘suspicious’.

“So, we keep going,” he reported, trying to sound a lot more certain than he was feeling. “Try to think of a plan on the way there. If we can’t, we just…storm in?”

Jane and Roxy exchanged looks.

“Sounds good to me!” Roxy chirped, and Jane nodded.

Together, they pressed forward.

**Author's Note:**

> Next Chapter: The final member of the group is encountered, the Pale Mansion is broken into, and our heroes must face the Brothers of Blood.   
> thanks so much for reading, and any feedback would be much appreciated


End file.
